Kabouter movement

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Roel van Duijn 2008 looking at a photo of himself from the 1960s

The Kabouterbeweging ( Dutch : Kabouterbeweging ; Kabouter means something like goblin or brownie ) was a Dutch protest movement, which was initiated by Roel van Duijn and Robert Jasper Grootveld and existed between 1969 and 1974. Their actions were directed primarily against consumerism and environmental pollution . Its members called themselves "Kabouters".

aims

The Kabouter movement initially consisted of around 65 to 70 activists. Initiatives for a “new society” aimed at by the movement included the “alternative clothing industry” with the main focus on using natural materials for clothing, and “Eine Alternatieve PTT(alternative postal service) with its own postage stamps. Other members of the movement opened small shops selling organic food , the first organic shops in the Netherlands . Furthermore, in protest against the throwaway society, the “Oranje-Vrijmarkt”, a barter market, was set up.

Regional initiatives called Kabouter groups have sprung up in more than 60 cities . Its members successfully ran for council in seven cities. On June 20 and 21, 1970, a meeting called the Heksenkring (meaning 'Witches' Congress') took place in Amersfoort . Around 400 Kabouters, including some from Belgium, discussed alternative economics and supra-regional coordination and organizational structures. Together with the former Provo movement , the Kabouter movement had an anti-authoritarian attitude, a non-hierarchical organization, spontaneous initiatives and anarchism as ideological inspiration. Characteristic were tactical procedures with humor and fantasy together with serious suggestions for changing society as well as non-violence and international contacts.

History of origin

The Kabouter Movement was founded by some previous Provos in February 1970, three years after the Provo Movement broke up. The main aim was to bring together the various extra-parliamentary groups in Amsterdam with the ideas of Roel van Duijn as the last representative of the Provo movement in the Amsterdam municipal council. Among other things, the "Kabouters" sought a change in mentality in order to break through and change social structures.

As early as October 1969, van Duijn presented his plan to the local council: Amsterdam as “Amsterdam-Kabouterstadt”. He declared the Kabouter culture as representative of the counterculture , a symbol of the harmony of city dwellers with nature. The vision was a social utopia based on the views of Peter Kropotkin , Rudolf Steiner , Herbert Marcuse , Karl Marx and Erich Fromm .

On February 5, 1970, the movement proclaimed the so-called Oranjevrijstaat ('Orange Free State'), including a shadow government. Also in 1970 the movement ran in the Amsterdam municipal council elections and won five seats.

Similar to the "Kabouters" in the Netherlands, there was the group "Kölner Heinzelmenschen" in Cologne in the 1970s, which was inspired by the Kabouter movement. From 1971 to 1977 you edited the Heinzelpress magazine.

literature

  • Coen Tasman: Louter kabouter, kroniek van een Bewegungs. Uitgever Babylon / De Geus, Amsterdam 1996.

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. Author: Coen Tasman ( Memento of the original from November 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Lecture on the Provo and Kabouter movement on May 3rd and December 12th, 2000 in Münster. Much of the information in this article comes from this talk @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.odeon-nijmegen.nl